At Sun Microsystems, the founders split founder equity evenly, each receiving single-digit percentages, despite their different roles, and it worked out well.

There are three parts about Sun Microsystems' founders: (a) founder equity was split evenly, (b) each founder held single-digit percentages, and (c) the arrangement worked out well. True: histories, filings (for example Sun's IPO prospectus) or founder accounts confirm an even split among the founders at single-digit percentages each, and Sun succeeded. Mostly true: the founders' stakes were roughly equal and in single digits, with small differences. Mixed: one of the two equity facts (even split or single digits) holds and the other does not. Mostly false: stakes were clearly unequal and only some were in single digits. False: stakes were clearly unequal and not in single digits.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Vinod Khosla and Sam Altman on how much equity to give your first 10 employees Startup Archive · 5 June 2024 Own record

   “I think among the first three or four founders at Sun, we kept less than half of the common. The total was something like 25-27% for the founders, an equal or slightly larger chunk for everybody else we would hire”

2. E2 Sun Microsystems' Pioneering Co-Founder Gives A Rare Interview - with Scott McNealy - Business Podcast for Startups Mixergy · 30 December 2014

   “So, my percentage ownership of Sun was very, very tiny.”

3. E3 Sun Microsystems Is Blazing a Red-Hot Trail in Computers : $300-Million AT&T; Deal Moves Firm to Set Sights on IBM Los Angeles Times · 31 January 1988

   “In less than six years, it has grown from the classic Silicon Valley start-up firm to a nearly $1-billion-a-year company”

4. E4 Sun Microsystems' Pioneering Co-Founder Gives A Rare Interview - with Scott McNealy - Business Podcast for Startups Mixergy · 30 December 2014

   “So, my percentage ownership of Sun was very, very tiny.”

5. E5 Sun Microsystems' Pioneering Co-Founder Gives A Rare Interview - with Scott McNealy - Business Podcast for Startups Mixergy · 30 December 2014

   “Except the good news was he also invested in Sun Microsystems, so we made millions on that and lost $100,000 on the Data Dump.”

6. E6 SCHEDULE 14A / DEFINITIVE PROXY SOLICITATION MATERIAL, Sun Microsystems Inc. (filed 1999-02-11) U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) · 11 February 1999

   “Scott G. McNealy(1)..................................... 8,527,110 2.20%”

7. E7 Sun Microsystems - Wikipedia Wikipedia

   “On February 24, 1982, Scott McNealy, Andy Bechtolsheim, and Vinod Khosla, all Stanford graduate students, founded Sun Microsystems.”

8. E8 Sun Microsystems - Wikipedia Wikipedia

   “On April 20, 2009, it was announced that Oracle would acquire Sun for US$7.4 billion, or US$5.6 billion net of Sun's cash and debt.”

The only evidence on how founder equity was divided is Khosla's own account (E1). He puts the founders' combined stake at about 25-27% across three or four founders, which suggests single-digit stakes but does not say how the equity was split between them. McNealy's description of his stake as "very, very tiny" (E2/E4) and his 2.20% holding in the 1999 proxy (E6) come from much later, after dilution, and do not show the original founder split or whether it was even. Sun's growth and its acquisition by Oracle (E3, E8) bear on the "worked out well" part, but no independent source or filing confirms an even, single-digit split.